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Everything went really well again in 2007 with the Blacklocks, including 7 year old Marika on fiddle, the PT Wranglers' wild and multi-faceted presentation, Christmas in July's traditional Swedish music and... many other fine sawyers and reconteurs. Mark your calendars for August 9th and 10th, 2008.
SATURDAY - AUGUST 9th, 2008, 1pm - JAM at the TOM SCRIBNER STATUE, 1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz
SATURDAY - AUGUST 9th, 2008, 6pm - POTLUK/JAM at ROARING CAMP in Felton, CA
SUNDAY - AUGUST 10th, 2008, 10am to 5pm - FESTIVAL at ROARING CAMP in Felton, CA www.roaringcamp.com
CONTEST: August 10th, 11am at the Deer Creek Stage
WORKSHOP: August 10th, 4pm - How to play the saw
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We have had participants in this festival from all over the United States, and from Canada, China, Japan, Czechoslovakia, England, France, New Zealand, and Australia.
There will be a gathering of sawplayers at 1pm on Saturday near Tom Scribner's statue at the Pacific Mall, near 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.
On Saturday evening until 10pm there will be a jam in the Roaring Camp Parking lot (free overnight parking for self-contained RV's)
ROARING CAMP is located between San Jose and Santa Cruz just off Hwy 17 at 1 Graham Hill Road in Felton. Click on the following icon for a printable map.
There is a main stage which has continuous music from 10am until 6pm with individual sawplayers and bands which include musical saws, guitars, mandolins, fiddles, accordion, bass etc. You'll hear a wide range of music: Old-timey, Bluegrass, Classical, Blues, Folk...
There will be a MUSICAL SAW CONTEST (The "Saw Off") at 11am at a smaller stage about 150 yards behind the main stage.
To assure your space in the contest please mail the following form by July 1, 2007. Also, please register at the festival by 10am. The entry fee for the contest is $5 and there is a $20 annual fee to become a member($25 for families).
CONTEST RULES: Each contestant is to play two songs. You may play one piece with accompaniment of any kind, and then you are asked to play "Auld Lang Syne" twice through without accompaniment. "Auld Lang Syne" is known all over the world, but in some places it is called "Friendship Forever."
You should be able to hear "Auld Lang Syne" by clicking on the following link and then clicking melody (this version plays it three times in the key of F and once in G):
Or you can try this link (this one has an introduction and then plays it twice in the key of G)):
ROARING CAMP is a large facility with an old-fashioned train you can ride through the redwoods; a great place for the whole family.
We always have spontaneous jamming taking place under the trees around the festival; you'll enjoy lots of different musical styles including old-time, bluegrass, Irish and general folk.
SO COME ON BY AND HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!
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If you are coming to this year’s Saw Festival from outside the San Francisco Bay Area, you should know that finding a room in hotels/motels in Santa Cruz is VERY difficult on Summer weekends, as it is a popular tourist destination. Also, in the Summer the prices are higher, but you might find less expensive lodging in Scotts Valley, which is only about 5 or 6 miles from Felton (the Festival is at Roaring Camp, which is in Felton). There are also a few small Bed and Breakfasts, lodges, resorts etc. in and around Felton. You can go to Roaring Camp's "Lodging" page for some specific names, addresses and phone numbers: www.roaringcamp.com
If you decide to get a room or campground, I’d suggest making your reservations ASAP, because if you wait until closer to the Festival it may already be too late (you’ll have to go farther away from the Festival).
Here are a few to get you started:
•Fern River Resort 5250 Highway 9, Felton, CA 95018 Phone: 831-335-4412
•Best Western Inn - Scotts Valley 6020 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 Phone: 831-438-6666
•Hilton San Jose South/Scotts Valley 6001 La Madrona Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 Phone: 831-440-1000
If you have a camper, trailer, RV or just a car you can sleep in, you can join us for a friendly overnight potluck/jam which starts at about 6 PM on Saturday August 13th in the outer parking lot at Roaring Camp - for FREE. We rent a fresh "Porta-Potty" for our use there, but it's really just a dirt parking lot - there is no running water, electricity (except perhaps in one of the RV's that come), and no grass or comfortable area to pitch a tent, but some people sleep on the ground or in their car (that’s what I do).
There is a nice park with camping perhaps 2 or 3 miles from Roaring Camp, South East of Felton along Graham Hill Rd. It's called Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park at 101 North Big Trees Park Rd., Felton, CA - (831) 438-2396 - Campground Reservations (800) 444-7275 - www.parks.ca.gov
The park features 15 miles of hiking and riding trails through a forest that looks much the same as it did 200 years ago. The park is the home of the Redwood grove, with a self-guided nature path, and Douglas fir, madrone, oak and the most unusual feature of the park, a stand of Ponderosa pine
Not TOO far away (10 or 15 miles?) is Big Basin Redwoods State Park, with Campgrounds & tent cabins - Open Year Round 21600 Big Basin Hwy, Boulder Creek (800) 874-8368 - (831) 338-8860 - www.parks.ca.gov - The park has miles of trails that link Big Basin to Castle Rock State Park and the eastern reaches of the Santa Cruz range. Both hikers and equestrians utilize the trails.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
For great music that's a cut above the rest, come to the 31st annual International Musical Saw Festival, Saturday and Sunday, August 9th and 10th, 2008, in beautiful Santa Cruz county, California.
The cutting edge music starts Saturday, August 9th at 1:00 PM, with a free acoustic jam near the world's only life-sized bronze statue of a saw player - in front of Bookstore Santa Cruz, located at 1520 Pacific Avenue. Next comes a free potluck dinner and jam at 6:00 PM in the outer parking lot of Roaring Camp in Felton, just seven miles north of Santa Cruz.
The big event happens Sunday, August 10th, at Roaring Camp when the world's greatest saw players come out of the woodwork to join other acoustic musicians in a variety of musical performances. You'll hear bluegrass, country, folk, gospel, blues, classical, and even show tunes (believe it or not, no heavy metal) throughout the day. Festivities start at 10:00 AM, with spontaneous acoustic jams throughout the day. There's a Saw-Off competition from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and a Chorus of the Saws at 3:00 PM., with up to 50 saw players trying to play in unison.
And for those who want to learn how to play music that really has some teeth in it, there's a free Musical Saw Workshop at 4:00 PM.
The entire event is free, and fun for the whole family. For more information, check out www.SawPlayers.org, or www.RoaringCamp.com. Held by the International Musical Saw Association, this event is sponsored in part by KUSP radio and the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. Come to the 31st annual Musical Saw Festival, and say you saw it here first!
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This is Morgan's post '05 festival email:
Hello!
I had a GREAT time at the Festival! Although only 9 people signed up for the contest this year, we still had 31 saw players at the Chorus of Saws and I met some nice (and skilled!) new saw player friends.
We had a huge crowd (150?) through much of the day, and Kenny just reported that we did well on T-shirt sales. White turns out to sell much better than orange - although we sold nine of the orange ones too!
Henry Dagg from England is a very nice guy, interesting in many ways, and a VERY good saw player. We had a wonderful couple of hours playing together Saturday night. He came in First Place at the contest. He has pretty good vibrato control and he has "right on" pitch control. He was paid by BBC to come to the Saw Festival in 1987, but it was in Los Angeles, and I didn't meet him.
Caroline McCaskey (a fiddle player and our"Teen Advisor" since she first came to the Festival 3 years ago) has REALLY gotten better control of her bow, pitch and overall tonal quality, and came in 2nd at the contest. She's now 18 and has just gone off to college at UOP - University of the Pacific in Stockton (Central California) for the Fall semester.
Irving Francis came across the country from Queens, NY, came to the Festival and entered the contest, and earned 3rd Place. I thought Irving had beautiful sound quality. I was very impressed with Irving both as a saw player and as a person. He has great energy, spirit and warm friendly demeanor.
We had a few Special Awards this year: One for "Unique Tools" (!) to new member Frank Feldstein from Crestline, CA, because he had a very tiny, rusty "toolbox" saw about 10-12" long, and a VERY hairy (numerous broken bow hairs) childrens violin bow that wouldn't tighten up - so you had to use a finger to stretch the remaining hairs tight enough to bring out sound in the saw. Also had a very rusty 26" or 28" regular saw. Interesting, friendly guy.
The other Special Award went to Dax Tran-Caffee for "Unique Presentation" for his red fingernails and toenails, and a made-up-on-the-spot "microtonal" piece of sound effects. Dax is a very creative, self-assured "artiste."
Jackie Jones, the smart and funny 78 year-old saw player from San Francisco played on the Main Stage with her "tap-dancing cat" (manipulated by a foot pedal). Jackie has an unbelivable skill for drawing small children to watch and dance around her like the pied piper. As soon as she starts to play, the little ones start dragging their mothers toward Jackie from all directions. She is quite a performer.
Jackie was escorted down to the Saw Festival by Mark Hedin, the author of the nice article on the musical saw and Saw Festival that appeared in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle the week before the Festival. His article really got a lot of attention, and I think it exposed a lot of people to the musical saw, and helped to enhance the size of this year's audience. If you missed his article or want to print it out for yourself - it's at: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/07/PKG0RE18DK1.DTL& hw=Musical+Saw&sn=001&sc=1000
Bill Heier, the amazing (and humorous) player of the, six-feet-long 2-man cross-cut saw, came out of hiding just before the Chorus of Saws. Unfortunately many people missed hearing him play - and as far as I know he's the best around. Bill is alone among saw musicians in that the "insturment" he plays typically requires a lumberjack at each end if it's going to be used to cut wood. Heier, who uses a mallet rather than the more typical method of bowing the blade, refers to his instrument of choice as "jagged and very dangerous. I'm apparently the only one in captivity who plays that thing."
Videographer Peter Esmonde was a joy to have with us at all the events, and I'm sure he got a lot of good shots. He was very professional and sensitive and worked from about 12:30-8:30 PM on Saturday, and all day Sunday to document everything and everyone he could. I'm really looking forward to seeing his final product!
Ruby Wright - a very cute and sweet Londoner who travelled from LA to the Festival with Henry Dagg, had major jet-lag - but nevertheless rallied and got some good interviews for her documentary piece for BBC Radio. Henry also had done some recording about saw players for the BBC - and had his way paid by the BBC to come to the 1987 (I think) Festival in L.A. Ruby has a bubbly, optimistic, youthful energy/personality that I especially enjoyed.
Overall, it was a really fun event, and everyone interacted well, no disputes that I'm aware of, just lots of good energy and fellowship in sharing the joys of playing the musical saw. Art and his friend Vince did a fine job with the sound system again, and Thomas Spearance did a great job as Master of Ceremonies.
Everyone I've talked to since has said they really enjoyed every aspect of the festival. I hope you can make it NEXT year (August 12th & 13th)!!!
Take care.
Morgan
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From Art Peterson: The 2004 festival was really great, and I mean that with utmost sincerity. The folks from Japan were fabulous both as sawplayers (Hajime Sakita won the saw contest, etc.) and as human beings - they were friendly, humorous, engaging, charming... Also having Craig Paice from England was a special treat, not to mention our own David Weiss, Alan DeLay, Caroline McCaskey, Dax Tran-caffee and so many others playing on stage, jamming under the shade trees, participating in the Saw-off, and enjoying a truly world class string of entertainment on the main stage.
Special thanks to Morgan Cowin, Viola Blacklock, Vince French, Joe Eding, and special guest, TV Personality and saw player, Janeen Heller. And, of course, Charlie Blacklock who led the massing of the saws.
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